The United
Steelworkers (USW) and U.S. Steel Corporation have reached a tentative
agreement on successor four-year collective bargaining agreements covering
approximately 14,000 USW-represented employees at all of the company’s
domestic flat-rolled and iron ore mining facilities as well as tubular
operations in Fairfield, Ala., Lorain, Ohio, and Lone Star, Texas.

The tentative
agreements remain subject to ratification.

The announcement,
made after deadline on Monday, comes 45 days after the previous three-year
contract expired, on Sept. 1. Both parties agreed to a “rolling extension”
of that contract, with the understanding that either could terminate it
after 48-hour notice. Meanwhile, the union did something it did not do in
2015, the last time a contract expired without a new one in place: it
prepared to go to the mattresses, seeking and overwhelmingly obtaining from
its membership authorization to strike USS.

“U.S. Steel began
this process insisting upon deep concessions from a group of workers who had
already made major sacrifices to help the company through a difficult time,”
USW International President Leo Gerard said. “It’s a testament to the power
of solidarity that these workers were able to stand up with one voice and
demand fair treatment.”

“Every member of
this union should be proud of what we’ve accomplished,” added USW
International Vice-president Tom Conway, who chaired the union’s bargaining
committee. “This group of workers stood up to a hugely profitable company
and demanded a piece of the success they helped to create.”

“We are pleased to
have reached a tentative agreement with the USW we believe is fair and in
the best long-term interests of our employees and their families, as well as
U. S. Steel’s customers, stockholders, and other stakeholders,” USS
President and CEO David B. Burritt said in a separate statement. “Together,
we’ve agreed on terms that will create certainty and stability for our many
stakeholders, enable our company to implement our long-term business
strategy, which includes continued, responsible investments in our people
and plants, and position U. S. Steel to remain a leader in the highly
competitive global steel industry.”

The union said that
membership meetings will be held in the coming weeks to review the tentative
contract prior to a ratification vote.

Throughout
negotiations this summer and into the fall, the USW hammered one theme:
concessions may have made painful sense three years ago, when the steel
market was weak and USS struggling, but now would be both injurious and
insulting to members, given the company’s renewed profitability. “Don’t
forget--the company came to the bargaining table this summer intent on
forcing us all to accept a bad agreement,” the union said in a separate
communiqu

e
released on Monday. “What they failed to consider was that the members of
this union never back down from a fight. Thanks to all of you, we were able
to reach a tentative agreement that includes none of the regressive,
concessionary demands the company was prepared to shove down our throats.
That is solidarity in action. Instead, this contract moves us all forward in
a way that allows us to share in the company’s success.”

The USW, on the
other hand, has still not reached a tentative agreement with ArcelorMittal,
and in its most recent communiqu

e the union suggested it
may have “little choice” but to strike the company. In the last bargaining
cycle, 2015-16, the union didn’t announce a tentative agreement with
ArcelorMittal until nearly four months after it had ratified a
new agreement with USS.